The actor best known for making his weekly entrance on Duffy’s Tavern with a cheery “Duhhh…hello, Arch!” was born on this date in Worchester, MA in 1898. Charles “Charlie” Cantor was radio’s most beloved dunce, Clifton Finnegan—whose name was inspired by Clifton Fadiman, the host of the erudite radio quiz show Information Please. That, however, is where the similarity ends: Finnegan was a well-meaning dimwit who frequently found himself embroiled in the weekly shenanigans at Duffy’s, always instigated by “Archie the Manager” (Ed Gardner). Finnegan wasn’t ever going to be appearing on any kind of quiz show in his lifetime…unless it was It Pays to Be Ignorant.

At the height of his radio career, Cantor was one of the medium’s most dependable second bananas. Like most people in the entertainment field, he had a little show business in his blood—he worked a little in vaudeville (where he did a blackface act) and as a song plugger during his school vacations (attending a number of New York institutions, finally obtaining a B.A. from NYU), and one of his hidden talents was a none-too-shabby proficiency playing barrelhouse piano. Upon graduation, he landed his first job as a shoe salesman—he was not going to be a starving artist, but rather a success in the business world. Sadly, his experience with big business left him flat broke, and so he turned to nightclub work…which ended up being his ticket to radio.

Charlie Cantor’s first work over the ether was as an actor for New York’s WHN in 1921. Cantor found radio a delight, and his talent for dialects ensured that he would never lack for work. By the mid-1930s, Charlie had established his second banana bona fides as one of the “Mighty Allen Art Players” on Fred Allen’s Town Hall Tonight. He also appeared on shows headlined by Phil Baker, George Jessel, Eddie Cantor (no relation, of course), Walter O’Keefe, Fred Waring, Benny Goodman, Tim & Irene Ryan, and Kate Smith (he and his fellow Allen Art Player Minerva Pious even performed as a duo on Kate’s show in 1941). Cantor didn’t just run through his repertoire of dialects on comedy and variety shows, however; he emoted on such dramatic programs as The Shadow, Gang Busters, and Dick Tracy. An article from The Pittsburgh Press in 1943 made mention that “A few years back, before he decided there could be too much of a good thing, Charlie was on 22 shows a week—seven of them on Wednesday.”

By the 1940s, Charlie had started to taper off his radio assignments despite regular roles on The Amazing Mr. Smith (as Herbie the valet) and Meet Mr. Meek (as Meek’s boss, Mr. Barker). His work on Fred Allen’s show (now known as The Texaco Star Theatre) kept him pretty busy, particularly in December of 1942 when Allen instituted the “Allen’s Alley” segment on his show. Cantor played one of the first denizens of the Alley, an amiable dunce who answered to “Socrates Mulligan.” (Charlie also occasionally played “Rensaleer Nussbaum.”) He’d portray Socrates for two years before Fred took his hiatus in the 1944-45 season. When Allen returned to the airwaves in the fall of 1945, however, he would be forced to find a replacement…because by that time Charlie was devoting a lot of time to what would become his signature radio role.

Charlie Cantor joined Duffy’s Tavern while Texaco Star Theatre was in its first season. Seemingly surrounded by a force field of stupidity, Cantor’s Clifton Finnegan became one of the most popular characters on star Ed Gardner’s successful sitcom. On one Yuletide-themed broadcast, Finnegan explains to Archie that he’s been having trouble selling raffle tickets as part of a charity sponsored by the tavern— “I’ve been to every house on the block,” he complains. “Well…have you been off the block?” Archie asks his pal. “Arch…for years!” is Finnegan’s reply. In later years, the Duffy’s scribes introduced Finnegan’s kid brother Wilfred (played by a young Dick Van Patten) to provide support for Cantor’s unforgettable characterization. Cantor remained with the show until it left the airwaves in 1951; he even made the move to Puerto Rico when Ed Gardner decided to relocate the show there for tax purposes.

In addition to his work on Duffy’s, Charlie Cantor was a regular on The Alan Young Show, playing another mental giant named “Zero.” Cantor was Solomon Levy on Abie’s Irish Rose, Uncle Louie on The Baby Snooks Show, and Uncle Buckley on The Life of Riley. He also made guest appearances on other popular comedy programs, including Amos ‘n’ Andy, The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show, The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show, Meet Mr. McNutley, My Friend Irma, and The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show.

Charlie had made sporadic appearances on Jack Benny’s radio program, beginning in the 1930s, often as a heckler named “Logan Jerkfinkel.” When Jack moved to television, Cantor inherited a role that had originally been played on radio by Elliott Lewis, a character described by Jack’s writers as a “mooley.” (If anyone looked like a “mooley”…it was Charlie Cantor.) The mooley often turned up during Jack’s traditional Christmas shopping trek to a department store, where he would ask: “Duhhh, can I help youse, huh?” Once asked by Jack how he wound up selling perfume, the mooley replied, “I woik in da fertilizer department, but once’t a munt they sends me up here to even t’ings out.”

Other radio programs on Charlie Cantor’s resume include Command Performance, G.I. Journal, Jubilee, The Lux Radio Theatre, Mail Call, Orson Welles’ Radio Almanac, The Radio Hall of Fame, Request Performance, The Revuers, and Truth or Consequences. Radio was good to Charlie, and because he made such a good living emoting in front of a microphone, his movie appearances were infrequent. He did reprise his Clifton Finnegan role for the 1945 silver screen version of Duffy’s Tavern, and also graced the casts of Stop, You’re Killing Me (1952), The Great Imposter (1961), and That Funny Feeling (1965). Cantor made a successful transition to the small screen as radio faded. In addition to his appearances on The Jack Benny Program, he worked on the likes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, December Bride, The People’s Choice, and Harrigan and Son (with a recurring role as “Gimpy”). In 1966, a week after his 68th birthday, Charlie Cantor passed away.

Our birthday celebrant demonstrates just why he was in demand as one of radio’s top stooges with guest appearances in the Bergen & McCarthy collection The Funny Fifties, and a March 7, 1949 broadcast of My Friend Irma, available on the CD set On Second Thought. Of course, you’ll really want to check out the work he did with the great Fred Allen in the compilations The Fred Allen Show and Jack Benny vs. Fred Allen: The Feud. We’ve saved the best for last: make a pilgrimage to “where the elite meet to eat” and drop into Duffy’s Tavern; Duffy Ain’t Here…but Charlie Cantor definitely is as the immortal Clifton Finnegan.